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Old 08-05-2010, 05:37 AM   #40
Kylotan
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Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Nottingham, UK
Home MUD: Abattoir (Smaug)
Home MUD: ex-Jellybean (Smaug)
Home MUD: ex-Dark Chambers (Merc)
Posts: 174
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Re: Developing from scratch

You've raised the bar somewhat by citing God Wars. The generic Merc/Envy/Rom/Smaug combat system however is a trivial (and unbalanced) copy of what is now called the d20 system, for instance. That is easy to duplicate - a different linear change in thac0 for each class based on level, armour balanced so that an almost-full set gives you an AC value proportional to your level, and a random number from 1 to 20 used when comparing the two to determine a hit or a miss.

I ripped out the combat system from an Envy MUD back in 1997 and completely replaced it with an entirely new system that was better balanced (including converting player and area files), and it took me a couple of weeks, back when I wasn't very good at C. There are lots of rule systems around, or you can stick with d20 if you like. Sure, making a game perfectly balanced isn't easy. Luckily virtually none of the stock mud codebases, which is what was being compared against, actually have balanced systems. Take a look at the values that go into the combat - you're clamped up against the top limit with a 95% chance of hitting all the time in most Diku derivative games once you're past level 12 or so with a decent set of equipment.

I'm happy if you guys want to continue insisting that doing this sort of thing takes years. At hobbyist rates of a few hours a week then maybe it does. But some of us are pretty good coders and also good designers and it really doesn't take that long to code a basic but functional mud engine if you know what you're doing. No, of course I'm not claiming it will be exactly as good as a mud you've spent 12 years coding and building on. How could that possibly be measured? But you can replicate 80-90% of a stock Diku's code functionality in well under a month using a modern language with modern libraries. In fact, as I understand it, the original Diku was put together - not just code, but the design too - in under a year in people's spare time. So why the pessimism now?

Last edited by Kylotan : 08-05-2010 at 06:29 AM.
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